The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State has urged Governor Siminalayi Fubara to use the recent Federal High Court judgement as an opportunity to properly present the 2024 budget before the State House of Assembly.
Chief Tony Okocha, Chairman of the APC caretaker committee in the state and Rivers State representative on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), made this call while addressing the media in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Okocha welcomed the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which nullified the N800 billion budget passed by the group led by Rt. Hon. Edison Ehie in the Rivers State House of Assembly and signed into law by Governor Fubara.
Commending the judiciary for upholding justice, Okocha stressed that the budget was never properly presented because the Ehie-led group did not meet the statutory requirement of forming a quorum in the House, which necessitates one-third (approximately 10 members).
He maintained that the budget was never presented in the first instance because the Ehie-led group did not meet the 1/3 (10 persons, approximately) statutory requirement of forming a quorum in the House. It therefore amounts to putting something on nothing.
Okocha said: “The budget was presented in error. There is no way 4 Assembly Members will be sitting as an Assembly when the law stipulates one-third, which is about 10 members. So it means that the Assembly never met, and for the Governor to take such a risk amounts to putting something on nothing.
“So the decision of the Federal High Court, which also stopped the Governor from interfering with the affairs of the Rivers State House of Assembly, is in order and is welcomed by us.”
He therefore calls on the Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to present the budget to the Rt. Hon. Martins Amaewhule-led Rivers State House of Assembly in the interest of the good people of Rivers State.
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